In December, I set up a public library with 12 laptops with Vista and Windows Steady State., with WDP turned on. Set up windows update through steady state to run on Saturdays at 10a, which was a convenient time for the library staff to turn on the computers and let them run updates. These computers are set up to automatically connect to the local wireless network. When it updated this past Saturday (which I believe is the first time they had the computers on to run updates), it just never finishes the update. It comes to the "Cannot log on. The system is currently being updated and will be restarted when the updates are complete." screen. And that's it. nothing else happens. I've watched one of the computers for the last two hours, and nothing else happens, although I do see occasional disk activity. Tried restart, get the "Windows Disk Protection is committing changes, please wait...." window, and then it's back to the "Cannot log on" screen. Tried safe mode, it came to a login prompt. I tried to log in with the administrator account, but it said it was disabled, and I couldn't log in. I tried last known good configuration, and it comes back to the "Cannot log in" screen. If no one is logged in, does the wireless connection still connect? I'm wondering if it doesn't have network access, and can't download the updates that it wants to pull. Ideas? Otherwise, I'm rebuilding 12 laptops, and the library budget is taking a huge hit. Thanks! -Michele

March 17th, 2010 12:24am

Anybody? Sean, I saw you come through and answer other questions, how about me? Additional info. When connected to the network via a physical ethernet cable, turning off the wireless network, I see it get an IP address and make requests through the proxy, that are allowed by the proxy, to: http://download.windowsupdate.com/v9/windowsupdate/redir/muv4wuredir.cab?1003171932 https://www.update.microsoft.com:443 http://download.windowsupdate.com/v9/windowsupdate/redir/muv4wuredir.cab?1003171932 and then nothing else. It makes these three requests each time the laptop boots. I tried a second laptop for the safe mode, and was again told the administrator account was disabled. -Michele

Hi Michele, I suggest you first check solutions in the following threads on the similar issue:Stuck on "system is currently being updated..."http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowssteadystate/thread/b9efd5f2-b6d1-4d2a-93ab-25f5f6a395e6Stuck on Updating reboot loop for 26 hours and countinghttp://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowssteadystate/thread/62e5227f-64fd-48d6-b3c8-71dc5d743fbfHope this helps!Sean Zhu - MSFT

March 18th, 2010 6:25am

Hi Sean,Thanks for the links, searches I did never turned up the first one.Between those, and a bit of common sense, I recovered, and want to share what I did here.My problem was the Security Program Update for the antivirus was causing it to hang. Although they say many times on here that SteadyState will cancel any process during system updates that takes more than 30 minutes, this was not happening on the library laptops.First of all, no matter what you think the administrator id/password is, there IS an administrator/(blank) id that works in safe mode.1) Boot in safe mode, logging in as administrator/(blank)2) Start -> right click Computer -> Manage3) Local Users and Groups -> Users -> right click the administrator user you have set up -> Properties4) uncheck "Account is disabled"5) Services and Applications -> Services -> right click Windows SteadyState -> Properties6) Set the service to disabled.7) reboot.8) Login with your administrator id/password9) Go into the Windows SteadyState control panel10) choose Schedule Software Updates11) turn off the Security Program Updates side note: Here's your opportunity to make changes that you didn't get right the first time, like the power settings for me.12) Go back into the Services and set the properties for Windows SteadyState back to Automatic13) restart. At this point I get the "Updating blah, blah, blah" box again, but it doesn't interfere with the reboot. I also know that SteadyState is working because I get the "do you want to save changes?" box. I choose "yes, save changes and continue", and it goes to the reboot.14) Not ever wanting to do this again, I log back in just to make sure the changes are still there.This fixed it for me!-Michele

Took many hours (16) to figure this out but this worked.
Boot into Safemode,
Open Registry
Find SteadyState Key
Local Machine/System/Controlset001/Services/Windows SteadyState/Parameters
Change
DoUpdateNextBoot to 0
EnableAutomaticUpdates to 0
Save and Reboot
You should be able to log in without any problems.
Cheers